Tonight I was having an interesting and stimulating conversation with someone. Unfortunately once we got into evolution for a little bit it came out that she was a creationist, somewhere between intelligent design and scientific evolution, more on the design side. My opinion of her went down dramatically and I found it hard to want to come out and disagree with her, partially because she used “evidence” which I had no knowledge of and my only retort could have been: “I’ve never heard of that, but I’ve heard of some different things on that matter.”
I’m not sure why but I feel guilty when my opinion of a person drops purely for this reason. I find it even more strange in someone who seems to have fairly scientific views on most other subjects. On the one hand this is a pretty substantial subject to disagree upon, however I find it a bit harsh to judge someone so strongly on one particular view. Especially in this case where the view seemed contrary, rather then indicative, of the person’s other views.